Things could only get better back in 1997: British music had a swagger and charm seen in acts ranging from Oasis and Blur to the Spice Girls.
In some ways, 1997 has never been more relevant: listen and look hard enough and you’ll find references from that era everywhere. It’s not just someone blasting D:Ream’s New Labour anthem outside a soggy Downing Street; spend any time on Depop and you’ll see 90s sartorial choices that take their cues from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Clueless littering the shopping baskets of gen Z.
Here’s a rundown of how 1997’s culture compares with today’s.
What were we listening to?
1997 was a standout year for British music. The Mercury prize list was full of indie (Suede, Primal Scream, Radiohead) but also inventive yet accessible dance music (the Prodigy, the Chemical Brothers, Roni Size). Size’s drum’n’bass took the prize, giving the genre its biggest breakthrough moment.
Britpop reached its zenith: Radiohead’s OK Computer made sad robots cool, the Verve had global success with Bitter Sweet Symphony, and the Spice Girls continued their unstoppable rise. Fast-forward to today and there are eerie echoes of 1997: Mel C joining Orbital for a techno-rejig of Wannabe; drum’n’bass being heard all over the Glastonbury site.
What were we watching?
The English Patient bagged 12 Oscar and 13 Bafta nominations and former steelworkers were stripping off in Peter Cattaneo’s The Full Monty, starring Robert Carlyle, riding high from Trainspotting the year before.
On TV, Channel 5 was launched, taking the number of terrestrial channels to a now quaint-seeming five. The children’s hit show Teletubbies made its debut on BBC Two. ITV showed the pilot for Cold Feet, with James Nesbitt and Helen Baxendale; she would later appear in Friends, which was in its ascendancy. Ricky and Bianca’s EastEnders nuptials provided a true royal wedding.
I’m Alan Partridge set new comedy standards. Compared with today’s cult TV (The Bear or Baby Reindeer, for example), 1997’s had a lightness and playfulness, although This Life broke that mould.
What we were wearing?
At this year’s Glastonbury one 1997 staple was everywhere: the bucket hat. Furry, flourescent, camo – the headgear Liam Gallagher had ensuredwas essential in 1997 was back again. On the catwalk back then, Alexander McQueen had just left Givenchy for Gucci; but the biggest fashion story of the year was the murder of Gianni Versace outside his Miami home.
1997 has become one of the key fashion reference points of the last few years. As nostalgia for the era and TV shows such as Friends has blossomed among gen Z, so has a hankering for the classic baggy mid-blue jeans favoured by Joey, while boxy suits (as seen in The Last Dance, the documentary about the 1997 Chicago Bulls), slip dresses (Buffy) and cycling shorts (Princess Diana) have all made returns.
What were we reading?
JK Rowling’s story about a boy wizard called Harry Potter first hit bookshelves in 1997. Bridget Jones’s Diary made Helen Fielding a household name and, despite the era’s reputation for hedonistic hell-raising, looks quaint when compared with some of the antics in Sally Rooney’s novels, or in Saltburn.
Arundhati Roy became the first Indian winner of the Booker, while at the other end of the literary spectrum, Loaded magazine, whose star was nearing its peak in 1997, was as brash as it was successful. The provocative lads’ mag seemed to encapsulate a “let’s get on it” attitude that the men who grew up in that time are still unpicking via headspace apps, therapy and ultra-running. Its cultural importance hasn’t been overstated, though: 300,000 issues were bought every month.
What were we looking at
Sharks suspended in formaldehyde, fried eggs as breasts, a tent inscribed with names of sexual and sleeping partners … Young British artists – the YBAs, as they were called – stormed on to the main stage with the Royal Academy’s exhibition Sensation – Charles Saatchi’s collection of art made by Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Marc Quinn and Sarah Lucas, among others.
What were we eating?
In 1997, the culinary revolution that would hit Britain in the early 00s was still in its infancy. Gordon Ramsay was still a year away from opening his first restaurant and Nigella Lawson a year away from publishing her smash-hit book How to Eat. This was the era of Marco Pierre White, who was, as he put it, “building forces in London to advance into the provinces” as his restaurant empire prepared to expand.
Arguably, it was a chef who emerged a couple of years later who has had the biggest impact on how we eat in 2024. Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef first aired in 1999. While those opposed to fast food culture have been around for ages, it was Oliver who took the idea of simple, cheap home-cooked food to the masses.
What were we talking about?
The death of Princess Diana in August stopped Britain in its tracks. Other huge moments included the death of Mother Teresa, the cloning of Dolly the Sheep, and the case of the British au pair Louise Woodward, who was accused of murdering a baby in the US. She was initially convicted before walking free after the charge was reduced to involuntary manslaughter.
The inquest into the death of Stephen Lawrence, who was murdered in 1993, ended with a verdict from the jury that he had been killed “in a completely unprovoked racist attack by five white youths”.
One of 2024’s biggest stories has been another miscarriage of justice: the Post Office scandal, which has once again shaken trust in a public institution.
What were kids playing with?
Pogs were de rigueur in the summer of 1997, as the game in which you piled circular cards and then smashed heavier “slammers” into them reached a critical mass. Japanese tamagotchis – digital “pets” that you had to keep alive by feeding and nurturing them – were another surprise hit. Today, 90s staples such as Cabbage Patch Kids, Furbies and Barbie (who got her own video game in 1997) are still at the top of kids’ shopping lists.
Video consoles were moving into exciting new territory. The PlayStation had come out just over a year before, and Sony’s console was in an arms race with Nintendo’s N64, which arguably had the best game of the 90s: Goldeneye 007. Then, on the PC initially, another cultural phenomenon arrived in 1997: the brash and raucous Grand Theft Auto franchise.
• This article was amended on 8 July 2024. Owing to an editing error, an earlier version said it was former miners who were stripping off in The Full Monty, rather than former steelworkers.
